


A Brother's Sacrifice

by Geekygirl24



Category: The Mummy (1999)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Prompt Fic, What-if Challenge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-04
Updated: 2021-03-04
Packaged: 2021-03-17 22:42:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,187
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29848626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Geekygirl24/pseuds/Geekygirl24
Summary: Prompt from Saphira Winters: Anyway I wanted to Challenge you. :-) So you know the scene in the first mummy movie where Evie goes with Imhotep willingly to avoid her friends being hurt? Only for Imhotep to double cross here? Well I challenge you to write it only where Jonathan is the one who goes instead of Evie, prompting Ardeth, Evie, and Rick to rescue him. Ending with of course Ardeth and Jonathan riding on a camel kissing off into the sunset. :-) It can be a one shot of course.
Relationships: Ardeth Bay/Jonathan Carnahan, Evy Carnahan O'Connell/Rick O'Connell
Comments: 1
Kudos: 28





	A Brother's Sacrifice

They were completely and utterly surrounded.

“Imhotep. Imhotep. Imhotep.” The crowd chorused in unison, voices monotonous and low.

Jonathan wasn’t ashamed to admit that he was terrified in this moment, watching Rick trying to keep the mindless zombies at bay with the lit torch, just as they parted to reveal Imhotep himself.

Imhotep who was after his sister.

His sister that he’d sworn to protect.

“Come with me my princess, so we can be together forever.” Beni, Rick’s cowardly friend translated for the creature, only for Evy to roll her eyes.

“For all eternity… idiot.”

Jonathan didn’t know how she could be so brave in a situation like this.

“Take my hand…” The translation continued, as a sudden thought came to Jonathan.

Ardeth and the curator just said that it had be someone of Egyptian blood that Imhotep wanted to sacrifice, right? It didn’t have to be Evy, it was just because of his past love that he chose her.

And Evy did look more Egyptian than him, anyway, having gotten her looks from their mother.

“… and I will spare your friends.”

He knew his sister like the back of his hand. To save them, she wouldn’t hesitate… which meant that he couldn’t either.

As Evy questioned Rick, asking if he had any bright ideas that could get them out of this, Jonathan was already stepping forwards, stunning everyone into silence.

“You only need Egyptian blood, right?” He held his hands up in surrender, hoping that they weren’t shaking too much, “Take me… you don’t need my baby sister.”

“Jonathan don’t!” Evy lunged forwards, only for Rick to grab and hold her back.

What was more shocking was Ardeth stepping forwards as well, him being held back by Mr Bay. It was hard to miss the concern in the other man’s eyes.

“It’s okay old mum.” Jonathan tried to reassure her, “Better me than you, huh?”

“No! It’s not better!” Evy struggled against Rick’s grip, “Jonathan, don’t you dare do this!”

“THIS, is protecting you.” Jonathan tried not to shudder as he felt Imhotep grab his arm, “Live today to fight tomorrow, right?” He made eye contact with Ardeth, pausing at the look of sheer fury that was directed at Imhotep.

Surely, he’d agree that this was the best thing to do.

“Ardeth, stop!” Mr Bay snarled as Ardeth pulled at his grip, “Mr Carnahan… has a point.”

Ardeth turned his gaze to Imhotep, “I am going to enjoy putting you back in the ground.” He hissed, struggled renewing when Beni started to pat Jonathan down, pulling out the object that started this whole damn mess.

Somehow, he knew that getting felt up by this rat wasn’t going to be the worst thing to happen to him today.

As Imhotep started to pull Jonathan away, he said something else in Ancient Egyptian… something that Jonathan needed no translator for.

Kill them all.

“Hey!” He immediately started to struggle, wincing at how the grip tightened, “LET ME GO! EVY! EVY!”

…………………………………….

“Come on!” Rick opened up a drain, their only escape, “Evy!”

“Jonathan! I need to help Jonathan!”

“We will!” As Evy entered the drain, Mr Bay drew his sword and moved to stand in front of them. Ardeth, remained frozen where he was, eyes focused on the last place they’d seen Jonathan, prompting Rick to grab his collar and pull him down, “You next!”

Ardeth went down with a little bit of a struggle, but when Rick called out for Mister Bay, the curator stood his ground, telling them to go on without him.

And so, they lost another member of their team.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………

“You’ll probably die doing it.”

Winston perked up, “By jove, do you really think so?”

Evy waited for a quip from Jonathan about how ‘everyone else had died, why not you’… only to remember why it was they were there.

Glancing over at Ardeth, she was a little shocked to see that he looked a little lost as well.

Had her brother really had that much of an impact on him?

“So, what’s the mission then?”

“Rescue the…” Rick paused, “… sort of damsel in distress, kill the bad guy, save the world.”

Winston didn’t seem to notice the ‘sort of’ part of the statement, chuckling in delight. “Winston Havelock, at your service sir!”

They headed over to a small biplane…. With only two seats.

“I hope you’re not expecting me to cling to the wing.” She hissed to Rick, who started shaking his head immediately.

“I wouldn’t dare.”

……………………………………………………..

Jonathan groaned as he and Beni were thrown out of the tornado and onto the blazing hot sand.

“Get off!” He snarled, scrabbling to his feet, kicking Beni away from him as he tried to make a run for it, only for his arm to be grabbed by a newly formed Imhotep.

His eyes then landed on that cursed city.

The city that started this whole mess.

Imhotep’s grip was bruising as he stared at the city, all of their attention turning to the plane flying overhead.

“Evy.” Jonathan whispered, only to yelp as the ground in front of them cracked, sand clouds rising into the air and pursuing the plane, a giant face in the cloud swallowing them up, making Jonathan panic again, “Stop! You’re going to kill them!”

He was ignored.

Still yanking on the grip around his arm, Jonathan summoned up every inch of courage that he had and punched Imhotep right in the jaw.

The sand wall disappeared, but the little plane still crashed as Jonathan was dragged away.

“Let me go! EVY! EVY! ARDETH!”

………………………………………………………………………….

They had lost Winston… but the trip hadn’t been a complete loss.

Ardeth had ripped the gun from the plane, vowing that he would put a bullet in Imhotep’s head.

…………………………………………………………………………………..

Jonathan tried to pry the grip from his arm as he pulled further and further into the tomb, occasionally glancing back at Beni, hoping that some of those horrible scarab beetles were hanging around.

Beni deserve that kind of comeuppance.

……………………………………………………………………………………….

“Evy, maybe we should be more- “

“- My brother is behind this cave in somewhere!” Evy yanked at the rocks, ignoring Rick’s protests (glad that Ardeth wasn’t stopping either), “So no! I’m not stopping!” She glared at him, “And stay away from that wall. I have no desire to watch Ardeth dig a scarab beetle out of you.”

“I know!” Rick winced, remembering exactly what those bugs could do, “And I’m not suggesting that you stop or slow down, I just think we should be more careful! We don’t want to make this all worse!”

As if on cue, several rocks came tumbling down.

…………………………………………………………………………………………….

Jonathan beamed at the sound, smirking over at Imhotep. “You’re really having some trouble killing them, aren’t you?” He taunted Imhotep, “Not so all powerful really, are you?!”

He was summarily ignored, as Imhotep grabbed some strange dust, heading over to the wall and blowing the dust onto it, an incantation following on afterwards.

The carvings of the people on the wall cracked and broke away from the wall, revealing partially mummified bodies, eyes still rolling about in their sockets.

Not once, did Jonathan ever remember Evy saying anything about this.

“Do you ever wish you’d done better in school?” He asked Beni, in a stunned daze, “I could have been a teacher in Oxford right now, instead of this.”

Beni nodded with a strangled whimper, just as everything went dark.

…………………………………………………………………………………..

Rick, Evy and Ardeth walked through the chamber of gold.

“Jonathan would love this.” Evy whispered, “I can almost hear him begging me to let him keep some it.”

“If we get out of here, he can have as much as he wants.” Rick muttered, only to spin around at the sound of high-pitched groans and mumbling.

Half mummified hands burst out from the sand, pulling forth decrepit and rotting bodies.

“Who the hell are these guys?!” Rick exclaimed.

“Priests.” Both Ardeth and Evy answered, “Imhotep’s priests.”

“Oh… alright then.”

They open fired.

…………………………………………………….

Jonathan groaned as he came too, hearing chains clanking. It was only when he opened his eyes, that he realised that the chains were attached to manacles… that were around his wrists.

He was just dressed in his undershirt and underwear, canopic jars beside him on the stone table he was lying on.

Squeak, squeak, squeak!

Rats didn’t bother him too much, as he rolled over to try and shake it off.

Mummified women lying next to him, did bother him.

“AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!”

………………………………………………………………………………………..

Ardeth continued shooting, only vaguely hearing the screams in the distance as they reached the statue of Horus. Rick lit a stick of explosive quickly.

“Time to close the door!”

………………………………………………………………

The half-mummified priests all started to surround him, as Jonathan struggled against the chains. They fell to their knees as Imhotep approached, one hand stroking gently over the mummified woman’s face.

“EVY!” Jonathan screamed again, “ARDETH! SOMEONE!”

…………………………………………………………………..…………….

The priests just kept coming.

“Damn, these guys just don’t quit, do they?!”

Ardeth re-loaded the shotgun. Knowing that he had some…. Anger to let out, he turned to Rick and Evy, “Keep digging.” He ordered, “This is the only way to save Jonathan.”

They did, and soon, they were uncovering the Book of Amun-Ra.

“Ardeth, you go and help Evy save Jonathan and kill the monster.” Rick shot to his feet, grabbing the gun, “I’m a better shot than you, and when it comes to Egypt mumbo-jumbo, I am not the one you want with you.”

“O’Connell- “

“- Go!”

And with that Rick was charging at the priests, firing shot after shot after shot, lighting up a stick of dynamite to clear the path for them.

……………………………………………………………………….

Jonathan continued to struggle as Imhotep read from the back, seriously considering the old spy trick of dislocating his thumb to get free.

Especially when a moving, swirling cloud black smoke started to head straight towards them.

Stunned, Jonathan watched as the mass lowered itself over the mummy, sinking right into the body until it arched up with a pained, desperate scream.

“AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!”

What else could Jonathan do but join in?

“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

He looked to his other side, to see Imhotep raising a golden dagger into the air, preparing to kill him in order to bring his mummified girlfriend back to life.

Seriously, there was danger everywhere he looked, and it was all directed at him.

“AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“JONATHAN!”

Jonathan stopped screaming immediately, eyes turning to staircase, where his sister stood, a golden book in her arms.

“Capital timing old mum!” He tugged at his restraints, frowning at the way Imhotep was now intensely focused on Evy, placing the dagger by the mummy, as he moved closer to hear, “Maybe we can see about getting me off this thing now?!”

Evy was backing away as he moved closer, fumbling with the book.

“Shit.” She hissed, “Where’s the key Jonathan?!”

“The key?!” Jonathan thought desperately, fighting through the panic. Imhotep opened the book… and then he put the weird device- “His robes! In his robes!”

“Oh, that’s just great!” Evy rushed away, heading out of the room, Imhotep following on behind.

Before he could fully leave the room however, Ardeth emerged from the shadows, bringing a sword down against the chains, allowing Jonathan to pull one wrist free. As the priests started to swarm them, Ardeth battling valiantly against them, Jonathan focused on getting his other wrist free.

Once the mummies were all piles of broken bones and dust on the floor, Ardeth turned to Jonathan, a look of relief on his face.

“Are you alright?”

Jonathan knew his mouth was gaping open slightly as he nodded silently. Ardeth sighed in relief, raising his arm to free Jonathan from the second cuff, kicking away a legless zombie as he did so. Helping the other man to his feet, they moved to leave.

………………………………………………………………………..

“Hmmm, this looks promising.” Evy glanced at the inscription on the cover of the book, “Soldiers that are mine to command?”

…………………………………………………………………

“Jonathan!”

Ardeth rushed forwards as the body of Anck Su Namun pulled Jonathan away from him, attempting to stab him with the golden dagger.

At the same time, over a dozen, mummified, Ancient Egyptian warriors suddenly emerged from a side chamber.

“This day just keeps getting better and better.” He grumbled, eyeing the soldiers for a moment, who didn’t seem to be moving anywhere for the time being.

Jonathan was more important.

“Ardeth!”

Jonathan ducked and swerved out of the way of the wild slashes, heading further and further into the chamber as Evy’s voice echoed throughout the room.

“...Who Ta-shi Ahmenophus!”

………………………………………………………………….

Evy glanced around the room, eyes falling on her brother who was still trying to avoid being killed by Anck Su Namun.

There was only one thing to do.

“Destroy Anck Su Namun!” She ordered in Ancient Egyptian, watching the warriors all stand to attention and head in that direction.

“ANCK SU NAMUN!” Imhotep screamed, turning to Evy, “Give me that book!”

His beloved’s scream drew his attention away from Evy, prompting him to spin around, eyes focused on the shadows on the far wall, watching as the warriors ran Anck Su Namun through again and again and again.

“ANCK SU NAMUN!!!!!”

As her screams died off, Imhotep turned to Evy, who backed herself up against the nearby wall.

“Now. You. Die.” He growled, charging forwards, and pinning her up against the wall by her throat, lifting her up slightly as she coughed and spluttered.

“EVY!”

It was probably the first time she had been glad to see Rick charging in like the manic he was, sword arching down until Imhotep’s arm was separated from his body, freeing Evy and turning Imhotep’s attention on Rick.

Well… at least she had the key now.

As Ardeth rushed over to help Rick, Evy headed over to Jonathan, who was staring at the mutilated body of Anck Su Namun in horror. “Jonathan, are you okay?!”

“I’ll feel better when I’m out of here!”

“Soon. Hold this.” She shoved the book into his arms, as she quickly opened the book and started searching for the spell that would kill Imhotep.

“Hurry Evy!” Jonathan’s eyes widened as Ardeth was thrown across the room, Imhotep making his way over to the fallen man, lifting him up by the throat, “Evy!”

“You’re not helping!” Evy hissed, before smiling in victory, “Found it…. Kadish Mal! Kadish Mal!”

Jonathan watched as Imhotep froze at the words, turning to them as Evy finished the spell.

“Paraduse! Paraduse!”

A ghostly chariot appeared at the top of the steps, prompting Imhotep to drop Ardeth, trying to run only for the chariot to go right through him, carrying his screaming soul with them.

As Rick helped Ardeth to safety, the pair of them picking up their swords once more, Rick frowned. “I thought you said this would kill him!”

Imhotep was definitely not dead as he stalked towards them.

“No…” Ardeth croaked out, throat still sore from Imhotep’s attack, his grip tightening on the sword, “… But it does make him mortal.”

Before Imhotep could react, Ardeth was charging forward, sword slicing through vulnerable flash as Imhotep stopped in his tracks. As the blade was removed, Imhotep staggered back, hands clutching at his wound, as he stumbled back into the pool of black sludge and souls, flesh melting away from his body.

Sinking further and further into the pool, Imhotep focused in on them.

“Death is only the beginning.” He growled, before he was swallowed entirely.

For a moment, there was silence, until the walls all started to move around them.

“Time to go!”

Rick grabbed Evy’s hand, as Ardeth grabbed Jonathan’s, not seeming to notice how the Englishman flushed bright red at the contact.

He didn’t pull away though.

With Evy clinging onto the Book of Amun-Ra with her spare hand, they raced through corridor upon corridor as sand poured down onto them.

Jonathan never let go of Ardeth’s hand, not even when they passed through the room filled with treasure, which would have caught his eye any other day.

If he hadn’t almost been a sacrifice.

And of course, he felt no guilt for Beni not being quick enough to escape.

They made it out of the chamber, where everything else was falling all around them, forcing them to dodge those as the sand almost seemed to disappear out from underneath their feet. When Jonathan stumbled, nearly falling into the pit, only for Ardeth to pull him closer, practically carrying him at this point.

Eventually, they made it out of the city, watching from a distance as Hamunaptra crumbled into dust.

There was a collective sigh of relief.

“Are you alright?” Ardeth turned to Jonathan, voice soft as he scanned the Englishman from head to toe, eyes narrowing at the wound on Jonathan’s wrist, drawing attention to it.

“Oh that.” Jonathan winced, “I guess I pulled against the cuffs a bit too hard.”

Ardeth stared at the wound for a few moments, before reaching into an inside pocket and pulling out some surprisingly clean bandages, which he then wrapped around the wound. “We shall clean it properly.” He stated, “This should prevent anything else getting into the wound though.” He then looked Jonathan right in the eyes, “You have earned the respect and gratitude of me and my people…. All of you have.”

“I-it was nothing.” Jonathan knew his face was flushing red, hoping that he might be able to play it off as being due to the heat, “I-I- thank you for not letting me get sacrificed.”

For a moment, there was silence, until Rick rolled his eyes and groaned.

“Just kiss each other. Put us all out of our mis- OW!”

Knowing his sister had hit the American didn’t make Jonathan feel any less embarrassed. He was shocked however, when he looked up to see Ardeth staring at him intently.

Almost like he was considering Rick’s statement.

“What are you- MMPH!”

Really, he shouldn’t have been that shocked to find Ardeth’s lips pressed against his. 

It was short, but Jonathan still felt like his breath had completely left his body… and then he looked over to see his sister and Rick kissing as well.

“Ugh!” He groaned and rolled his eyes, making Evy detach herself from the American with an incredulous look on her face.

“If I have to watch you kiss someone, then I’m going to do the same!”

“I shouldn’t have to watch my baby sister kissing someone!”

“I don’t want to watch my older brother kissing someone!”

They didn’t notice Ardeth and Rick meeting each other’s eyes and rolling them in unison.

“Come.” Ardeth interrupted the bickering, pulling lightly at Jonathan’s arm, “I shall take you all back to the city so that we can have a proper look at that wound.”

“And get a room.” Rick mumbled, smirking as Jonathan was helped onto the camel, the Englishman opening his mouth to spit out a particularly vicious curse, only for his lips to be captured into another kiss.

“Come.” Ardeth whispered, mounting the camel behind Jonathan, “Let us… find a room, as Mister O’Connell says.”

That flush on Mister Carnahan was rather attractive.

Ardeth would be interested to see more.


End file.
